Getting a better deal

It may be a good thing that City Hall hasn't revealed a clear timetable for action on Comcast's applications to renew its franchise agreements before they expire this year. Careful deliberation is certainly preferable to the freight-train pace of the same process 15 years ago.

That's when a 90-minute committee hearing sufficed as serious study before City Council suddenly passed franchise renewal legislation that had been sitting around for months. "Slow down. What's the rush?" asked Gretjen Clausing of the Philadelphia Community Access Coalition, only to be blithely ignored.

One of Comcast's four current agreements with the city expired this month, and the last will run out on Oct. 17, but they will remain in effect until new pacts are signed. The agreements are a testament to Comcast's climb to the top in Philadelphia, which once had agreements with three other cable companies that were eventually acquired by Comcast: Greater Philadelphia Cablevision, Wade Communications, and Rollins Cablevision.

Franchise agreements are the avenues by which cable companies obtain public rights-of-way to lay and maintain their networks. Federal rules limit what cities can demand in return. But they can ask for up to 5 percent of cable TV revenues, which netted Philadelphia about $17.5 million in 2012. Maybe it's time to amend federal law to also allow cities a cut of Internet proceeds, which seem to be growing as cable TV revenue declines.

As part of the current renewal process, Mayor Nutter requested an independent study of community cable needs that produced a 571-page report, released in April. That's when Nutter announced that he would expand the city's Cable Franchise Authority to increase oversight and said he wants Comcast to upgrade public, educational, and government access channels, as well as provide fiber-based infrastructure to improve government telecommunications.

More important to home subscribers, Nutter endorsed findings of the CBG Communications study showing that Philadelphia customers believe they deserve better treatment from their hometown cable giant. A telephone survey cited in the report said more than a quarter of Comcast's Philadelphia subscribers are dissatisfied, with considerable scorn directed at its customer service.

Comcast disputes the study, noting discrepancies with data collected by the Federal Communications Commission. But given all the horrible customer service stories it hears year after year, the cable company can't deny that it needs to do better. If the city thinks it can encourage better customer relations through a new franchise agreement, it should. With opportunities to bargain with Comcast occurring only every 15 years, City Hall must take full advantage of them.